Bar Harbor Brass Faculty

Blair Bollinger, Music Director

Blair Bollinger enjoys a varied musical career as a trombonist, a conductor and a teacher. He is the Bass Trombonist of the Philadelphia Orchestra. He joined the Orchestra in 1986 at the invitation of Music Director Riccardo Muti and enjoys the full Orchestra schedule of more than 160 concerts each year along with many recordings and international tours, spanning the tenures of Muti, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Christoph Eschenbach and Charles Dutoit.  As a soloist, Mr. Bollinger has performed with The Philadelphia Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony, National Symphony of Taiwan and others. He has performed recitals and given master classes in Brazil, Chile, China, Holland, Israel, Japan, Korea, Poland, Taiwan and throughout the United States. Mr. Bollinger has been featured at multiple international and domestic brass conferences. As a student he won the 1986 Philadelphia Orchestra Greenfield Competition and remains the only trombonist to win this competition since it began in 1934 as well as the only bass trombone soloist ever with the Philadelphia Orchestra. In March 2007 he performed the World Premiere of a Bass Trombone Concerto written for him by Philadelphia composer Jay Krush with the US Army Orchestra at the Eastern Trombone Workshop.  His recordings include a solo disc, “Fancy Free”, for d’Note Records, hailed by
American Record Guide as “The recording I’ve been waiting for ... an amazing display of Bollinger’s virtuoso skills.” Other recordings are 2 discs with his trombone quartet "Four of a Kind" and a Gabrieli disc with the Canadian Brass. With “Four of a Kind”, Mr. Bollinger has toured Japan, Korea, Taiwan and the U.S. and appeared at several trombone conferences. An active arranger, his arrangements of music for various string and brass ensembles are published by Alphonse Leduc in Paris, Ensemble Publications in New York and Southern Music in Texas.  Mr. Bollinger is the founding Music Director of the Bar Harbor Brass Week in Maine where he conducts, performs and teaches each summer. He is a frequent guest conductor
with the Orchestra Society of Philadelphia and leads the Curtis Brass and Percussion Ensemble. Mr. Bollinger also has conducted concerts with his daughter, Robyn, as a violin soloist both in Philadelphia and with the DeKalb (GA) Symphony. He has conducted many colleagues from the Philadelphia Orchestra as soloists including concertmaster David Kim.  A 1986 graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, he studied with Charles Vernon and Glenn Dodson. Mr. Bollinger is now on faculty at Curtis and Temple University. In addition to teaching lessons, he conducts repertoire classes and coaches chamber music.  He has spent recent summers performing and teaching in the Grand Teton Music Festival in Wyoming, Eastern Music Festival in North Carolina, Aspen Music Festival in Colorado, Vail Music Festival in Colorado, Saratoga Performing Arts Center in New York, Bar Harbor Brass in Maine, Blast of Brass Conference in Texas and Lindenbaum Music Festival in Seoul, Korea.  Mr. Bollinger is also active in backstage administration work at Curtis and the Philadelphia Orchestra. At the Orchestra he has negotiated union contracts, served on marketing and education committees and currently Chairs the Conductor Search Committee. He is a member of the Board of Trustees at Curtis and has served on many Faculty and Board committees including Accreditation, Academic Honesty, Curriculum, Facilities, Library, Mission Review and Student Life.

Chris Martin, Trumpet

Christopher Martin, originally from Marietta, Georgia, joined the Chicago Symphony Orchestra as Principal Trumpet in 2005.  He was Principal Trumpet of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra the from 2001-2005, after three years as Associate Principal Trumpet of The Philadelphia Orchestra.  He received his Bachelor’s degree from the Eastman School of Music in 1997 under the trumpet instruction of professors Charles Geyer and Barbara Butler.  Prior to joining The Philadelphia Orchestra in October 1997, Mr. Martin was also offered the Principal Trumpet position with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra.  Mr. Martin has been an Affiliate Professor of Trumpet at at Emory University in Atlanta and Temple University in Philadelphia, and gives master classes at music conservatories and colleges around the nation, including the Manhattan School of Music.  He has performed as Principal Trumpet with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Seattle Symphony, and the Grand Teton Music Festival.  Mr. Martin, a native of Marietta, Georgia, comes from a musical family.  His father, Freddy Martin, is a band director for a prestigious Georgia private school, and his mother, Lynda Martin, sings in the Atlanta Symphony Chorus.  While a member of the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra, Mr. Martin trained with then-Atlanta Symphony Orchestra trumpeter Larry Black.  He later received his bachelor’s degree in trumpet performance in 1997 from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, where his primary teachers were Charles Geyer and Barbara Butler.  As Principal Trumpet of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, he can be heard on a number of recent recordings, including the ASO’s 2003 Grammy Award-winning recording of Ralph Vaughan Williams' A Sea Symphony conducted by Robert Spano.
 

Adam Unsworth, Horn

Adam Unsworth is Associate Professor of Horn at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Prior to his appointment at Michigan, he was Fourth Horn of The Philadelphia Orchestra (1998-2007) and Second Horn of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (1995-1998.) He has also performed as a guest Principal horn of the St. Louis Symphony and Principal horn of the Colorado Music Festival. A former faculty member at Temple University, he has appeared as a recitalist and clinician at many universities throughout the United States, and has made several solo and chamber appearances at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall. Mr. Unsworth received his formal training at Northwestern University, where he studied with former Chicago Symphony Orchestra members Gail Williams and Norman Schweikert. He continued with graduate work at the University of Wisconsin-Madison with Douglas Hill. He later recorded Jazz Set for Solo Horn, released in 2001 as part of 'Thoughtful Wanderings', a compilation of Hill's works for horn. In 2006 Adam released his first jazz CD entitled Excerpt This!, which features five of his original compositions for jazz sextet and three unaccompanied works. Since then he has completed a second jazz CD, Next Step, and recently released Just Follow Instructions, a recording of the chamber music of Daniel Schnyder. In 2000, the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music named him their Distinguished Alumnus of the Year.

Check out Mr. Unsworth's website at:
www.AdamUnsworth.com
 

Matthew Vaughn, Trombone, Euphonium

Matthew Vaughn joined the Philadelphia Orchestra in September 1999 as Associate-Principal Trombone.  He was Assistant Principal and Acting Principal trombone of the San Antonio Symphony from 1997 through 1999.  Prior to joining the San Antonio Symphony, Mr. Vaughn served in the United States Air Force Concert Band in Washington, D.C., from 1993-1997.  He has performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic, Atlanta Symphony and National Symphony and has been featured as a soloist with the Lafayette Symphony, San Antonio Symphony, Temple University Band, the United States Air Force Band, the Indiana University Symphony Orchestra, and the Richmond (Indiana) Symphony.  Born in Dallas and raised in Richmond, Indiana, Mr. Vaughn earned a Bachelor of Music degree with high distinction and a Performer’s Certificate from Indiana University in 1992, continuing with graduate work in conducting at Indiana University and George Mason University.  He taught trombone and was a member of the faculty brass quintet at the University of Texas at San Antonio, and currently teaches at Temple University.  His former teachers include M. Dee Stewart, Milton Stevens, and David Brumfield.
 

Stephen Dumaine, Tuba

Stephen Dumaine grew up in Burrilville, Rhode Island, and during his high school years he was a member of the Greater Boston Youth Symphony, winning a concerto competition to appear as soloist with them when he was eighteen. He earned his Bachelor of Music degree from The Juilliard School, and was principal tuba in Spain's Orquesta Sinfonica de Galicia during the 1995-96 season. Mr. Dumaine then returned to the United States, where his orchestral experience includes positions with the New World Symphony, the San Antonio Symphony, and the Alabama Symphony, and substitute work with the New York City Ballet Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic. National and international festival experience includes Tanglewood, Aspen, National Repertory Orchestra, SHIRA Festival (Israel), and Pacific Music Festival (Japan).  Mr. Dumaine joined the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C. as Principal Tuba in 2004.